Kayo's Revival
by Dad of Boi
Summary: A boy she loves more than any other hands her a bento, and she cries, now sharing a whole new world with him. Armed with knowledge of a future too dreadful for her to imagine, Kayo Hinazuki is transported back to a pivotal moment of her life, now capable of reclaiming the life of the first person she's ever called friend. [AU anime ending]
1. When I Sleep

Her grandmother found her crying at the bottom of the stairs.

It was only a week since they had been called. The little girl crying, bawling and trying to contain everything in herself after keeping a lid on it for so long - it was a sight no one, should ever want to see. And yet a sight that had always been completely expected, given the circumstances.

The old woman knelt down beside the frail and inconsolable little girl, and knew that nothing she could say would change a thing. She just stroked Kayo's hair, hugging her with her free hand and trying to give her some form of warmth.

To Kayo, the feeling was unnatural, this comfort. She had only felt like this around _him_ , and now, she - was probably never going to get another chance to feel him, to be with him, to be warm around him, and to see him smile and laugh and take her by the hand. All those times she would think about how much she was _going_ to return.

How she was going to see him and embrace him the first chance she'd be able to make it back to that town. How much she was going to tell him that she was a better, stronger person because of him. How much of a human being he had helped her become. A part of her wanted to blame her _mother_ , of all people. Surely, _she_ had something to do with it. How dare she. How dare she come back and ruin everything when she had just been put down. Dogs needed to stay in the ground when they'd been kicked.

But when she realized she couldn't blame her mother, blame anyone except for the nameless monster responsible for this madness, it became impossible to stop the cracks from coming. Her best friend in all the world, gone so soon after she had left him.

On second thought, perhaps she was wrong; perhaps there was indeed someone to blame for all this. After all, she needed someone to blame. Might as well allow her to take the fall. She had pieced enough together after having received the call. She was a child, but she was not dumb.

Satoru's untimely incident occurring _so soon_ after she had left for Sapporo? Satoru being so kind and generous all of a sudden, despite never having even spoken to her before? Satoru working so hard for her, protecting her day by day in school and from her mother and from everyone else she was too distrusting of to speak to?

She remembered one cold and dreary night she had been cooped up in a bus. A man had burst into the bus and then had hit something very hard. He had then left her and whatever he had kicked alone to go to waste and she - she remembered feeling so frightened, feeling so alone, feeling weaker than she had ever felt before. And then Satoru came to the conclusion that whatever the person had kicked was simply the bundled up tools of a criminal, when they had laid their eyes upon said tools for the first time.

Clearly, Satoru had known something. Perhaps Kayo herself had been a target of somebody's? That person who had arrived onto the bus? Something like that, she was sure. And Satoru had bent over backwards to make sure that she wasn't going to be hurt by whomever had targeted her. Perhaps he had caught wind of the plot after befriending her so suddenly. Perhaps he had always known, and that was why he had become so straightforward in his interactions with her.

She wasn't angry at the thought. She wasn't upset over the idea that maybe it had all been a lie just to protect her. It had just made her hate herself more.

What if she'd stayed? What if she had not left her mother for Sapporo? What if she had stayed in that dreary, snowy town and refused to leave? Would he have somehow survived? Would her presence have _changed_ anything? Could it have? His presence had certainly changed her a lot - what if she _had_ just stayed all along?

...Perhaps she could have done something. Hell, she might have been able to do something amazing, right? He - he was willing to do everything and put _everything_ on the line for her, just all for her. Knowing that, knowing _that_ , she knew she could have done everything she needed to! She knew she could have done _something_ , anything! She knew she had the strength!

Strength _he_ had given her! Strength he needed now more than ever to - !

No, she realized.

No. Nothing would have changed. Nothing. She was nothing. He had been everything. What could she have done, to fix things? What power did she have, on her own, when she had needed him to tell her to not be afraid and to not want to die? This was insane. This was a nightmare. And all she could do was hope that something, somewhere, out there, would speak to her and tell her that this was fixable. Reparable.

But there was only one time God had sent someone for her. She wondered, sincerely doubting it, if she was ever going to get a second chance.

Something flickering.

She flitted her red and wet eyes to her left. A blue butterfly made its way to her, and then she heard a low screeching noise. The world turned negative, and for a second she seemed like she was going to scream and choke and die in her own entrails and like she was being _strangled_ -

* * *

She opened her eyes, and found herself somewhere _cold_.

Her cheek was against something soft. Fabric. The rest of her body was on something rough and thick and unevenly-stitched. What was this? What was she on? Why? Why was everything so cold? What was...what was going on? Where was she? Why were things like this? She was in her grandmother's arms not too long ago.

Had she just cried herself to sleep in her grandmother's arms? If this were a dream, why was everything so...so real? Her eyes...she realized she was somewhere dark. She just realized her eyes had been open all this time. They hadn't adjusted yet to the world, so everything appeared black. What she was on...what surface even _was_ this? Why was it so familiar?

Wait.

She remembered.

This was...a bus seat. She remembered. Because the first time she slept on one of these, she had been annoyed. She had been annoyed at how rough the surface had been and how she couldn't catch a wink for at least thirty minutes before eventually dozing off. She remembered feeling a little bored and agitated because of her boredom of having nothing to do in a bus for days at a time. She remembered just contemplating about life and how everything was changing and how everything was happening because of-

What?

There was something on her. Another fabric - it was a blanket. Yes! Yes, she recognized this blanket! It was the one she had used to cover herself up and keep herself warm at night! Of course...! Then that meant...

No, impossible.

She stroked her hand on the surface she had been laid upon and her eyes started to adjust to the black.

This can't be real. This is not right.

It was blue. A blue cushion. A blue cushion of a bus seat. She widened her eyes before darting them to her left. There was a sheet in front of her. A sheet separating her from the rest of the dilapidated vehicle, hanging from a pole. She sat up, in her seat, and looked around - her eyes caught a window. She stared out, and saw a chain link fence, illuminated by some stray light. She knew that fence. She knew this place.

What she didn't know was how or _why_ -

Something shifted. A lurching and metallic, creaking noise suddenly rang out.

Oh, no.

She kept herself still at the sound. She remembered what this was. Why? Why was she back _here_? Here, in this situation!? No, no...!

Why was she here? Why was she here? Why, oh, God, why did you put me here!? What was this...!? Why was she back here!? I don't want this! He'll come for me and he'll kill me this time! What, what if...!?

"Hinazuki, good morning," he joyfully said to her as he went through the sheet separating her from the rest of the car.

He was holding a bento box, he was wearing that same puffy jacket he'd always wear when she'd see him outdoors and he was _here, alive, in front of her right now_ , giving her that same smile he had always given her, with that tender and caring voice she had once been weirded out by.

He was here and alive and in front of her and not dead, not having been drowned, not having been taken away from her so suddenly and so cruelly, not robbed of the life he had so clearly deserved and not a victim of hers anymore.

"Satoru..."

She just stared at him, taking in all of him, memorizing every single little detail about his face, his smile, his eyes, his presence; because _dead people_ don't reappear, _dead people_ don't get the chance to meet up with their friends again, _dead people_ don't smile, because they're too dead to smile!

"Uh...are you okay?" he asked, a small twinge of nervousness in his voice. Then, he straightened himself. She needed to eat. He'd just have to ask her for her concerns later. "I've brought you some food."

She stared at the bento box, wary, afraid. Like this was all just some dream, and despite all evidence to the contrary, she refused to believe that this was anything but some frail, lucid, horrible dream that was just pelting her over the head and saying _He's dead, he's not coming back, you're a fool to think he is._ Like if she were to even touch the box, she'd awaken from this monstrously torturous dream, and never see him again.

"Don't worry, I've already eaten," he told her encouragingly. Handing her the box, placing it in her lap.

Before she realized it, she was crying, tears falling down onto the bento, and her breaths hefty with fear and regret and relief and utter happiness.

"H-Hinazuki?" Satoru stammered out. "What's the matter? What's wrong-?"

She embraced him like he was going to die any second now, uncaring if it was a dream, uncaring that the bento was spilling all over the floor now, uncaring that he was startled immensely by her forwardness.

Satoru - the one she knew - had been drowned in a lake, trapped helplessly in a car by _someone_. A murderer who had most likely targeted her first, and then killed him in retaliation. And she was not going to let another Satoru perish.

Never again.

"Hinazuki!" he exclaimed, somewhat of a mild blush appearing on his cheeks. He had to recompose himself again, "W-why are you crying?"

"Please, don't talk right now," was all she could reply. "Please, don't leave me again."

"What, did - did something happen to you last night?" he muttered, now taking her by the shoulders. "Were you hurt? Did somebody come in here and-!?"

She just held him closer, tighter, stronger than she had ever held anyone ever before. She didn't know what the future held for the both of them. She didn't know how she was going to fix things or how this was even happening. Maybe this was a dream. Or maybe her whole life after first sleeping in the decrepit old bus was a dream.

That didn't matter to her at all.

The point was that Satoru was with her, and for this brief moment, for this calm before the storm, she was going to make sure that nothing else mattered but that.

* * *

 **AUTHOR'S NOTES:**

* * *

I saw _Erased_.

The first ten episodes were golden, some of the best I've ever seen out of anime. Seriously. But the last two were rushed trash.

And my objective with this fic is to fix that.

 **Made some slight edits to dialogue to make the words flow better.**


	2. A Long Story

"H-Hinazuki...what's going on?" Satoru couldn't help but feel frightened for Kayo's sake. Considering that he had already failed to protect her once, he was afraid to let any potential landmines go off in her vicinity. He couldn't afford to fail a second time. So he questioned her, "Did you see someone? _Anyone_ enter this place?"

Kayo realized what she was doing, however: latching onto him quite firmly for both of their own good. She wasn't even paying heed to a single thing he was saying, now going through several different scenarios in her head of how this miracle could've happened. Still hugging him, of course.

She realized that it was useless to try and figure out things, at least for the moment, and so she decided to be _extremely_ blunt. "You have to run away."

Satoru's eyes widened. "Wh-what?"

"You have to run away from this place. As soon as possible." She faced him, her face straining to stay placid and calm, but absolutely tearing itself apart in fear. " Take everything you need, take your mother with you, j-just," _Stop stammering, stop wasting time,_ "just get out of this town."

"What are you talking about!?" was all Satoru could exclaim. "What happened last night!?"

Useless. Useless!

It was at this point that Kayo realized she couldn't _just_ explain everything she had been though throughout the past week - or, future week, or - it didn't matter, _point was_ that Satoru needed to be pressured somehow and persuaded to get himself as far away from her and the town as possible.

She knew that she'd wanted him to stay, and she knew that she'd just told him to never leave her, but she knew that if he were to remain in this town, he was in danger of being killed. She roughly pulled herself away from Satoru, marched over to the box that had been kicked by the mysterious adult who had invaded the bus a night ago, and pulled it downward, exposing a roll of rope, leather boots, a facemask, and other suspicious tools. All of which crashed unceremoniously to the ground.

Satoru stared at the tools and equipment in horror and confusion. Kayo said, "You're trying to protect me, aren't you?" Satoru didn't know what to say in response, only turning his gaze to her now, puzzled and extremely taken aback by all that was happening. "There's someone after me. You know that there's someone after me, and you want to prevent that from happening. That's why you always helped me out when I needed it, right?"

Satoru continued staring, "H-Hinazuki, how did you-?"

"I _know,_ " she uncharacteristically exclaimed. But she recomposed herself immediately afterward. "Don't ask how I know. I just do. I'm not stupid. I know what these tools are for," _because of you,_ "and I know what you've been trying to do."

Satoru looked at her resolutely, "Hinazuki, there's more to it than just-"

"I don't _care_ ," she exhaustedly growled out, already exasperated with his persistence. She'd seen him die once and she'd lived with it for a week, she wasn't about to live through another when she could prevent it! "You are _not_ arguing with me over this."

Listen to me, God, help him listen to me.

She needed him to get out of here. What was _she_ going to do? She was just a kid. Was she going to find this murderer and put him to justice, parading him around as a symbol of her triumph? No. She'd probably die. And she was fine with that, but she wasn't whenever Satoru's face would enter her mind, cold and lifeless and dead and pale and-

" _Kayo_!" Satoru noticed the tears through her anger before she even had, and had his hands on her shoulder to contrast with his rough and demanding voice. "Calm. Down. Please."

Kayo exhaled, her cheeks and nose red, her eyes puffy and her tears flowing. Nevertheless, she had a fixed and somewhat grouchy gaze upon Satoru, like she was tired of trying to explain herself and tired of not being listened to, not being heard. Satoru had been the first person to _hear_ her. And now he wasn't even trying to.

 _So I'll make him._ "You died," was all she could murmur, mutter.

If he wasn't going to listen, she'd _make_ him.

"Wait, what?" asked Satoru. "What are you talking about?"

She sniffled, her gaze turning into a tearful glare, and she was just starting to fall apart. "You died."

"...did you...," Satoru began, grasping her shoulders, "have a bad dream?"

"It wasn't a dream," she grunted, shaking her shoulders free from his hands. "Dreams don't last seven days."

It was at this point that Satoru lifted his head and had a neutral gaze upon her. "Kayo..." This allowed her to continue.

"You managed to get me away from my mother. Or, you will. I don't know how to say it. It doesn't matter. I then go with my grandmother to Sapporo, and then I hear what happened or happens or _what will happen_ to you sometime later on." She practically had to force that statement out, and she was hating how things had had to come to this. "I don't remember how long it is before you drown. Your body is found in a car, trapped there in a seatbelt at the bottom of a frozen river. I-I," she couldn't help but stammer, and she kept on _hating_ how much control of the situation she was losing so soon, "I cried, before waking up here, in this bus, and suddenly, you're alive again."

She was now furiously crying, trying to compose herself as she took the seat behind her, too overwhelmed by all the memories.

"It's not a dream," she said, grunting, "I know it's not a dream, I know...I know when something's a dream...," she knew how stupid she sounded and she knew how ridiculous he must have found her and she knew he was probably going to think she was crazy and never talk to her again, but she had to try something. Anything. "You have to run away. You can't die again."

And the two of them stayed silent for what felt like an eternity.

Satoru gritted his teeth. He clenched his fist. He gulped. He looked upset, confused, scared, unknowing what to say. Kayo figured that was a pretty understandable reaction, given all that she'd said.

But then he asked, "Before you...came back here, did you see anything unusual?"

Kayo blinked. "Unusual...?"

"Tell me," he stared at her determinedly. "It'd help a lot."

Kayo didn't know what he was talking about. She didn't understand what she could've seen that was unusual. All she'd remembered was crying in her grandmother's arms, falling asleep in the process, and then-

Wait.

Before she'd fallen asleep. Something flickering. Something bright and blue and hopeful and- "A butterfly," she responded. "A small, blue butterfly."

Satoru stared at her like he didn't know what to say. He then started taking in deep breaths. After about four seconds of doing this, and confusing Kayo in doing so, he said to her, "You weren't dreaming."

Kayo blinked again. "You...believe me?"

Satoru stared at her, invigorated. "I call it 'Revival.'"

Kayo widened her eyes, "You know what it _is_?"

Satoru melancholically stared at her, his shoulders loosening and his voice becoming somber. "Kind of. It's...it's a very long story. I think you need to sit down."

"What do you know about this?" she asked him. " _How_?"

"I've experienced it," he admitted. "More times than I can count. And...," he balled his hands into fists, "this is one of those times."

"What are you saying...?" Kayo shook her head.

"Like I said...it's a long story."


	3. The Butterfly of Rebirth

"I don't know where it comes from. I don't know why I have it," Satoru said to her. "I don't know why it gave itself to you, either."

Kayo just blinked at him, her brows furrowing in mild confusion.

Satoru pondered for a moment, placing a hand to his chin, unsure of how he would explain it to her. There was simply...too much _to_ explain, too much to just thrust into the hands of a child and expect her to understand. Was he to explain that he was really twenty-nine years old? That his latest Revival had kickstarted in the year _2009_? Could he really get away with such a thing, right here and now? This early in the morning?

...of course not. Not yet, at least. It would be too much. There was a time for everything. And right now would be the worst time to just unload all his secrets. She'd _just gotten_ Revival. He figured he'd eventually have to ease himself into revealing the truth to her.

"When something bad is about to happen to someone," he explained, "I see a blue butterfly. And then, in a flash, time rewinds. I'm supposed to save whoever needs to be saved, during my second run through. And so I do it. That's...pretty much how it goes."

Kayo blinked again, mildly annoyed by the lack of any more information on this 'Revival.' "So that's it?" she asked him. "Time just... _rewinds_ whenever somebody's in trouble? You don't know anything else?"

"No," Satoru replied. "Not a thing. The butterfly just _appears_ , and then I'm sent back."

"Does it usually send you days back in time?" she asked.

 _Don't talk about 2009, don't talk about 2009, don't talk about 2009_ , "Usually minutes. One to five. I think."

"And you said you're in the middle of one right now?" she bluntly questioned, as she rubbed her eyes. She'd stopped crying, and was now just asking questions, asking things which would perhaps help her understand the situation.

Satoru scrambled to find a suitable explanation in his mind, _don't lie to her, come on, think of something,_ before settling with a somber, "Yeah. I am."

Kayo began piecing things together. His kindness and his sociability towards her despite the fact that he had never spoken to her before. His immediate knowledge of what those tools inside the box were meant for. His daringness, his courage, his maturity — she'd always had that feeling he seemed a bit old for his age. How long had he been stuck in his current Revival?

And why was he in one in the first place?

"What happened?" she asked. He turned his gaze away, and when he did that her voice turned cold again as she rubbed her nose. "Did something happen to me?"

He turned back to her, his hand having balled up into a fist. But she kept her eyes firm on him, and gave him a look that she had normally given him when they had been less-than-casual friends.

 _Don't try to hide it_.

When Satoru realized it was useless to try and keep up pretenses, he sighed, "It's not just you. There's a girl named Aya Nakanishi. She dies after you're supposed to. And then, after her, it's Hiromi."

Kayo's eyes widened, and all she was able to stammer out was, "What...?"

Satoru's eyes were narrow, and his expression was enough to unsettle her. "My other friend, Yuuki — he's an older guy — he is going to take the fall. He'll be imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit, and years upon _years_ later, what's supposed to happen to you and Nakanishi and Hiromi will happen to my mother," he grunted, sighing.

"S-Sugita?" Kayo stuttered. "He's supposed to die, and —" and then she remembered food, actual food on the table, she remembered crying and weeping and being inconsolable after having recalled bread and instant ramen and coins, _coins_ , she remembered Satoru's mom patting her on the head and comforting her as Satoru would watch the scene unfold "—and your mother, too...?"

Satoru's expression was solemn. "You are supposed to be dead. And even now, with all this," he points to the assortment of suspicious tools at their feet, "I don't know if I'm even doing a good job of keeping you alive."

Kayo's expression hardened, and all she could say was, "That's why you...befriended me, all of a sudden?"

Resolutely, fearlessly, Satoru told her, " _Yes_. To protect you. To save you. Because I didn't, the first time."

She blinked. "Satoru...?"

Satoru ran a hand through his head as he gritted his teeth and exclaimed, "I _saw_ you." His gaze was firm. His eyes were wide, and he looked like he was in mourning. "The first time around, I _saw_ you. In that park, in the snow. I _saw_ you. I would have asked you if you would have liked to come home with me, but I didn't know you, and so I left you there. I left you there, and before I knew it, you were dead. Then Nakanishi died, then Hiromi died, then _Yuuki_ was put in jail. You died, everybody died, and I could have stopped it if I'd done things different."

Though his voice was edged, he was not at all angry. He was terrified. Because now, she was stuck in this world with him, because she'd said _he_ was going to suffer for his actions, that _he_ was going to die, that all he had done would only result in his death. And he didn't know what to do. Had the killer gotten to his mother, still? Had the killer known, all this time, what Satoru had planned? Had the killer been waiting just for the perfect moment to strike?

Who could it have been? Whose car was he in? He'd trusted very few people in his hometown, even more so now since there was a killer living amongst them. The killer must have been someone close. Someone close enough for him to be willing to ride in his car with him, or perhaps the killer would strike upon him and his mother while she would drive —?

"Satoru." Satoru turned to Kayo, who had the slightest hint of a worried expression on her face. "Calm down. You're breathing too hard."

"Hinazuki," he said to her, grabbing her by the shoulders, "in the timeline you talked about, did you hear anything about my mom? Anything about Hiromi or Nakanishi? Anything that—!?"

" _N_ o," she said, startled by the sudden, _alien_ look of fear in his eyes. "No. I...no. When they called, they said you were the only one in the car. I didn't hear anything about your mother or Sugita or that other person before I came back here." He still breathed like his lungs were on fire, and all she could say was, "It was only you."

And at that, he felt mild comfort. But then he sharply turned to Kayo again, looking like he'd just realized something. "You and your mom...," he said, suddenly. "Did I...?"

Kayo scowled for a second, recalling her _mother_ , and then said, "I told you already. You got me away from her."

"What exactly did I do?" he asked.

"Why?" she asked back. "What are you planning?"

"You're not arguing with me on this," Satoru said. "You're going to go to Sapporo, with your grandma."

" _What_?" Kayo exclaimed, sounding like he'd just betrayed her. "You can't be serious—"

"You know about the killer, you know about what he's going to do, you know that he's still out there. You've got to go. I can take care of the rest. You've been helpful—"

"You are _not doing this_ ," she grunted. "Not to me, not after everything that's happened—" her expression turned sour. "I'm helping you—"

"It's the only way to protect you, Kayo!" he asserted. "You can't help me, I'm not going to put your life in danger!"

"And you think I can let _you_ put _your_ life in danger?" she gritted her teeth. "I can help you!"

"How?" he said to her, now trying to go for low blows due to his lack of a mental filter. "You're just a kid!"

 _I said that out loud..._

Kayo looked like she could burn villages down with her gaze alone. "And. You're. Not?"

And to that, Satoru gritted his teeth and hung his head low as he suddenly blurted out, " _I'm twenty-nine years old_!"

Kayo stepped back, her eyes wide and the realization coming at her like a freight train. "You're...?"

"The latest Revival hits me when I'm twenty-nine years old," he said to her, his eyes exhausted. "My mom gets stabbed in my apartment by some man in a suit and glasses. As he leaves, I find my mom's corpse, and the moment I exit the room the police are at my doorstep. As I'm running, I see a blue butterfly, and I'm walking down the street. To our school."

At that, Kayo did not know what to say anymore. All she did was stare at him, her eyes wide, her breaths shallow, and her mind completely blank.

"I had two Revivals, Kayo," he said. " _Two_. And in the first one, you died anyway! This is my second go at saving your life! This is the last chance I'll ever get! If I screw this up, you're dead, and so are those other kids, so's my _mom_ , Yuuki'll still be in prison, and whoever this killer is gets away with everything!"

"But you'll die, if you go through this alone," said Kayo, simply.

"And I'm fine with that, if it means—!"

"I'm here _now_ ," she said. "I was sent back, just like _you_ were. _I_ 'm the person who told you what'll happen to you. _I_ 'm the one the butterfly decided to send back. _I_ am here for a reason. I won't let you go through this alone."

"And what if you die again?" rebutted Satoru. "What if your _help_ ends up killing you? What if this killer, whoever he is, ends up killing you as well?"

"I don't care," she grunted simply. "I won't let him kill _you_."

Kayo held a glare which arrested Satoru on the spot.

"You saved my life. If not for you, I'd be dead, or with my mother. I remember. You bring me into your house and you give me food. Your mother sets a plate down in front of me, and I cry because I was _never_ given the kind of food she'd give me, and I'd be given only — only coins and bread and junk food to live on. And then me and your mom and our teacher — Yashiro-sensei — you all pitch in and help me get away from my mom. Grandma comes in, she takes me, my mother's crying and I don't care, I see you running for me as my grandma drives away with me in the car. The last I see of you, we're looking at each other as the snow falls. Then, you're gone. And you're telling me I should just ignore all of that."

He had changed the future once. He had saved her life, and for that, she was forever grateful. If he was capable of changing her future, if he was capable of altering her own miserable fate, then perhaps she, in her own meager way, was capable of changing his.

Satoru opened his mouth. Ready to say something. But then he stopped, and he frowned, and he turned his gaze away. He then turned back to her. "So, what? You're going to help me take this killer down and save everybody? Including me?"

" _You_ tried it," she deadpanned. "And it worked."

"After I messed up _once_."

"Then I'll keep you from messing up a third time," she said. "You're not going to take me away from this! You died once, and I'm not gonna let you die again! If you think you can go and act like some _superhero_ while I'm supposed to just sit back and let you save me, you're wrong."

She knew that after this, nothing was going to be the same. Not for her, not for her mother, not for Satoru, not for Hiromi, not for Kenya; not for anybody.

Sheepishly, Satoru rubbed the back of his head as he gave a scowl.

He was not going to be able to do this alone. And he knew it. He loathed it. Kayo was right. If he was going to make sure that the killer was going to stay behind bars for his crimes...he _had_ to depend on someone else. Someone who knew about Revival. Someone who knew about everything.

Someone he could trust. Someone...who was as willing to protect him as he was to protect her.

"...Kids are so reckless," he cheekily grunts to himself. "This isn't going to be easy, Hinazuki," he said. "Our struggles will only begin from here. The moment something bad happens to you, you're out of the game," he said. "That's the only condition. Are you sure you're gonna be okay with this?"

Kayo had never felt so tiny and yet so large at the same time.

"I'll be okay with it."

* * *

 **A/N**

DUN DUN DUN OH HOW THE TURN TABLES

What will happen? How will events change!? Will Kayo save Satoru from his impending demise? Will Satoru and Kayo be able to rescue everyone from the clutches of fate? Will the murderer be found? Will this story be updated at a regular pace!? _Tune in next time on Eraserball Z!_

Seriously, a massive thanks to everybody who's reviewed and stuck with this story despite my abysmal pacing!

Hope you all liked this _very_ late chapter, and here's to a chapter coming at a relatively earlier date, next time! :D


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